Page 133 of Seven Oars
“I can imagine,” Rosamma murmured.
She certainly could. Nud, for example, was easy to picture pissed off.
She wondered how the Striker was handling the loss of not one, but two of his so-called crew members.
“To add insult to injury, Keerym left the pods unusable,” she said.
They talked about the pods, subdued by this new, seemingly unresolvable problem. But eventually, they reached a conclusion that, in their situation, the pods weren’t as important. They’d never planned to use them for escape anyway, since no one knew how to pilot them. Except for Phex, but his attitude was a separate issue.
“We’ll figure out how to send another distress signal,” Rosamma said, trying to inject some optimism into her voice.“Now we know where to look for the transmitter.”
“It seems like that’s all we can do,” Gro said, uninspired.
They sat in silence for a while before Eze stirred.
“I guess it’s my turn to go look for Daphne,” she said.“She’s been gone a long time.”
Rosamma turned sharply.“She isn’t here?”
She hadn’t realized Daphne was missing!
“No,” Eze said.“Been hiding since before the Striker took you away.”
“But she isn’t in the Meat Locker!”
A bad feeling crept up her chest.
Eze sighed.“She’s broadened her horizons.”
A distant scream pierced the air.
They looked at one another in alarm.
“Was that Fawn?”
There was a tramping of feet, and Fawn burst into the Cargo Hold with terrified eyes and a face drained of color.
“Daphne! Oh my god, it’s Daphne!”She was gasping for air and babbling unintelligibly.
“What’s wrong?” Gro took Fawn by the shoulders and shook her.
“Dead!” Fawn choked out and collapsed.“She’s dead.”
A wave of despair swamped Rosamma.
They’d failed Daphne. She blamed herself most of all. She’d been too distracted, too absorbed by her own issues. She hadn’t done enough…
“Where’s she at?” she asked Fawn.
“Crew Quarters. There was so much blood!” Fawn moaned.“I’ll never be the same.”
Rosamma wanted to curl up and howl from grief, but she didn’t allow herself to. If she did, she’d never get up.
Nud, Xorris, and Esseh were in the Crew Quarters when Rosamma ran inside. They were standing in front of a sleeping node with its flap folded aside.
“Trash,” Nud muttered, but his tone lacked its usual bluster.
“She smells.” Xorris shuffled backwards.“I ain’t touching that.”
